A streetside glimpse of India from Bangalore - no paid news, no lobbying, no plants, no stringing along - just pure viewpoints. My own political education. Satire Alert (At times)!
Because, nothing is permanent, only interim!

Saturday, September 15, 2012

While India sinks slowly into morass - the India Shining story having been replaced by India Whining and finally India sinking, if anybody still thinks we are competing in China - here is a reality check.

From the moment you enter Tibet (now a part of China for all practical purposes), the roads are smooth at all places. Yes. Read that right. There is no pothole in Tibet. There are beautiful roads- sufficiently wide, with shoulders if required at heights that go almost upto 4000 metres in hilly mountainous terrain - the kind of terrain which we would rate as 'navigable by mules'. And these have been built in fairly quick time.

On the contrary, our marquee cities (barring Delhi which since our senior politicians cannot take bad roads) have as much potholes as the moon has craters. And in our cities, where mostly we dont have an altitude of 4000 metres nor are we hampered by mountainous terrain, our roads suck. Bigtime. And we take about a year to build a flyover - there are some which have taken 3 or 5. Yes, in our cities. And I am not talking about Arunachal Pradesh.

Exhibit II. In China, the mobile network is crystal clear - everywhere highways, mountains, deserts, lakes - you can call up your family from Mount Kailas and get them to talk to Shiva as well (in case you found him). The network is that clear.

And in our cities (forget highways, villages and other parts), we still have people dangling off buildings to 'catch' the signal. Near my place, I experience enough 'Bermuda triangles' where the network just dies.